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JAMMU, INDIA, November 24, 2002: A group of heavily armed militants stormed the Raghunath temple in Jammu which was packed with Sunday evening devotees. Throwing grenades and firing from guns, seven people were killed, including one of the attackers, and 28 injured. The militants were still holed up inside the temple and a fierce gun battle with security forces was on amid reports that another terrorist was hiding in a nearby Rupewallah temple and that simultaneous firing was going on there too. Police said an unspecified number of militants entered the temple at around 7 p.m., lobbed 12 grenades and fired at random after they struck at two places in quick succession. The militants first struck at Shaheedi chowk opposite the Congress headquarters and later triggered a blast near a hotel in the market area from where thousands of pilgrims set off to the Vaishnodevi shrine. Earlier, local residents, armed with homemade weapons, had taken to the streets in an attempt to take on the raiders, while the National Security Guard commandos are leaving Delhi for Jammu. The Raghunath temple was the scene of a similar attack on March 30, in which ten people, including three soldiers and two militants, were killed. The temple is visited by hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims from across the country every year.

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